A Department of Transportation illustration of what the proposed two-lane roundabout would look like at the existing intersection of Grand Lake Road, Highway 125 and the Sydney Port Access Road. Construction is expected to begin on the approximately $3.5-million roundabout in 2015.Submitted by the Department of Transportation

SYDNEY — A safe passage for pedestrians and cyclists through the busiest intersection in Cape Breton was granted Wednesday when the province agreed to pay for a $1.8-million overpass spanning across Highway 125.

It has long been the wish of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s active transportation committee to have the province commit to building an overpass that would connect with the Grand Lake Road multi-use path currently under construction.

The path is a three-metre wide asphalt strip, which starts in Reserve Mines, and will continue to Cape Breton University. From there, the trail would continue to the Mayflower Mall.

But finding a safe way to manoeuvre across the highway had provincial and municipal officials at an impasse.

Until Wednesday, active transportation folks, including the cyclist group Velo Cape Breton, were not happy the province was trying to convince them that using a crosswalk was a safe option.

The province plans to build a $3.5-million two-lane roundabout in place of the intersection at Grand Lake Road, Highway 125 and the Sydney Port Access Road. Construction is slated to start next year.

As late as a month ago, Department of Transportation officials told CBRM council crosswalks through the roundabout would provide a safe option for both cyclists and pedestrians.

Velo Cape Breton president Jacques Cote attended that council meeting and he wasn’t impressed, saying there’s too much of a “car culture” in the province, and it wasn’t acceptable for those who use active transportation.

Brian Ward, the lead engineer on the roundabout project for the Department of Transportation, said the intersection would be made safer when a roundabout is constructed there.

“They are designed to slow people down as they enter into it … so you won’t be doing 50 or 60 kilometres an hour,” Ward said in an interview with the Cape Breton Post last week.

“It should resolve some of the concerns people have about high-speed traffic in roundabouts.”

When reached Wednesday evening, Cote said it was “fantastic” news that he and others would no longer have to fret about navigating across as many as 11 lanes of traffic in a roundabout.

“This is absolutely the conclusion of a lot of work from the municipality, and also Velo Cape Breton,” he said.

“It is the essential link between Sydney and the university.”

Where exactly the overpass will cross over the highway isn’t clear, but it’s been the active transportation committee’s preference to have the path connect with the end of Upper Prince Street, Cote said.